borax

Definition

A white or gray/grey crystalline salt, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering metals, making enamels, fixing colors/colours on porcelain, and as a soap, etc.

Etymology

From Middle English boras, from Anglo-Norman boreis, from Medieval Latin borax, baurach (“borax”), from Arabic بَوْرَق (bawraq), from Middle Persian bwlk' (bōrag), which yielded Persian بوره (bure).

Example Sentences

• "“The best way to clean the machine is to put a pound of borax and a gallon of vinegar in the machine and run the longest, hottest cycle you have,” he says."
• "Furniture isn't made to last thirty years or longer because they took a survey and found that young homemakers like to throw their furniture out and bring in all new, color-coded borax every seven years."